Il Divo

THE FLICK
Il Divo, the cinematic story of Italy's Giulio Andreotti, is an odd combination of elements.  Instead of rehashing the man's entire life, the film takes a sliver of it and asks the audience to follow the political machinations of a system it's not familiar with.  All without stopping for directions, so to speak.  The DVD cover proudly proclaims Il Divo is a combination of The Godfather and Nixon.  That can not be disputed.  There's backstabbing and gunfire, maliciousness and political tension, all without the lead character raising his voice or becoming very animated.  And that's the genius of the finished product.  Not the sets or the way the story is constructed.  No, this is a production which rests squarely on the shoulders of leading man Toni Servillo.

As evidenced in the bonus features, Servillo's performance as a mousy, hunch-shouldered, pale mastermind is approximately half his doing and half the work of the makeup artists.  In interviews, the actor is alive, with a relatively youthful look to him.  But in the film, Andreotti is pale, nearly corpse-like, shaking hands in a "barely there" fashion.  Servillo stays with this characterization for the duration, never getting too high or too low.  Really, his voice rarely modulates, yet the audience and characters know his mental wheels are constantly turning.  Such is his personae on the screen that when someone interacts with him, they consciously bring themselves down to his temperament, certain signs of respect and fear.  After all, if Andreotti can order their murder, why risk offending him?

Director Paolo Sorrentino makes sure to punctuate the early political talk with enough action to keep the audience's attention while moving the story forward.  In that sense, Il Divo takes inspiration from The Godfather.  Well, maybe that's a half truth.  Il Divo is based on real events.  Whether they happened exactly as is shown in the film or not is a question better left to the historians.  However, by jolting the audience every once in a while, Sorrentino creates a character who can be slyly manipulative and ruthlessly brutal.

For better or worse, Il Divo doesn't pander, asking the audience to learn names, places and situations on the fly.  Title cards at the beginning of the film briefly outline the history of Andreotti and the Christian Democratic party at a break neck pace.  Clearly, the story is designed for Italians familiar with politics.  For everyone else, the dialogue moves too quickly, the key players name dropped too casually and important details never followed up on.  At one point, he and his wife have a conversation about potentially moving, if he wins an election.  Quirinal is mentioned twice with absolutely no follow up for foreigners.  (Quirinal Hill is the official residence of the Italian Head of State.)  Name dropping the White House or Buckingham Palace is one thing; people have heard of those places.  But Quirinal Hill?  It's more obscure.

Coupled with that, the dialogue has a rapid-fire pace to it, almost like Aaron Sorkin has a hand in writing it.  With all these proper nouns coming fast and furiously, it's of paramount importance for the audience to continually be processing new information.  It's impossible, though, to do so when there is no familiarity with the material being presented.  In any given scene, there may be red labels identifying people or dates, subtitles to go along with the Italian language track and action to keep track of, something is bound to be lost in the shuffle.  And that, in all likelihood, is the connections Il Divo wants us to make.  

It should be noted Sorrentino purposely filled the film with "powerful images," according to the extras.  Indeed, every shot seems to have taken an incredible amount of thought to execute.  From the way the camera pans around red labels signifying Andreotti-related murders to the stoic, disinterested way the man sits on a couch as grown men literally fawn over him, this is a very deliberate, very artful movie.  Simple shots like former Prime Minister Aldo Moro locked in a jail cell is bathed in an icy blue as the camera pans backward, giving the illusion of a very cold, very isolated place.

THE LOOK
In a word?  Amazing.  Simply amazing.  Outside of one or two moments where the heavy shadows tend to absorb background details, Il Divo's 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer is phenomenal.  At home with both bright locations or dark interiors, the picture is amazingly rich in texture and detail.  Part of that, of course, is the luscious location shooting, not to mention the ornate sets.  Yer the mastering process does so much more than simply replicate shooting locations.  It gives a remarkable amount of depth to every scene; dark suits are pristine on the screen, fleshtones display all the warmth they're supposed (or not, in Andreotti's case) and the slightest hint of intended grain is retained. 

THE SOUND
Fittingly, the Italian 5.1 audio mix (a 2.0 option is included as well) is an awesome mixture of elongated, quiet dialogue scenes and powerful, in-your-face sound effects.  The two are continually warring with one another.  One punctuates the other, as if to implore the audience to keep up with events.  Dialogue is a touch on the low side, but that's not a major issue.  At several points in the film, characters speak in large chambers or other settings which require the speakers to reproduce an echo effect.  It does-quite easily-while also juggling men walking on gravel or other minute ambient noises.  The track is impressive precisely because it makes us feel like we're in the middle of the action, as opposed to being assaulted by it.

A word about the dialogue and subtitles: Il Divo is a dialogue-heavy production with quick talking Italians.  As such, the subtitles require the ability to speed read while watching the action at the same time.  They're easy to make out on the screen, though with a confluence of names, places and situations non-Italian audiences aren't necessarily familiar with, it can be a bit overwhelming.  

THE STUFF
Packed in a normal black keepcase inside a slipcover, Il Divo does not contain an insert; the feature is divided into 12 chapters.  Trailers for Tell No One, Lemon Tree and Filth and Wisdom play at startup, but are no available from the Bonus Features menu.

The making of featurette (31:07) turns out to be far and away deeper and more meaningful than most pieces of its ilk.  Containing interviews with an assortment of personnel, everything from the character of Andreotti (courtly and sorrowful) to shot composition is discussed.  It's hard to imagine, but there are quite a few visual effects in the film.  The visual effects featurette (7:18) covers them.  Instead of having actual flowers on grave stones, they were created with a computer, much like establishing shots in the dead of winter or the individual snowflakes falling from the sky.

Nearly 12 minutes worth of deleted scenes are included, all in feature film quality with English subtitles.  They serve primarily to beef up Andreotti's character.  Last up is an interview with director Sorrentino (12:14).  Some information is repeated from the making of piece; the interview is outside the norm since only Sorrentino is on the screen and the piece is not edited to incorporate film clips.